He taped a microphone to the wall and wired it up to his Arduino. It monitors incoming sound and, using an adjustable threshold, it will trigger when the neighbors are too loud. We think he was wise to include some time filtering that makes sure the loud noises are sustained and not just the result of someone bumping into the wall. When the system does detect loud music for a sustained period it triggers [Matthew’s] own CD player to pump out Who Let the Dogs Out? by the Baha Boys. It will play for a period of time, then shut off to listen and see if the neighbors are still rowdy.

He documents an actual run in the latter half of the clip after the break. We sure hope he’s living in a building with just two units, otherwise this will drive the rest of the neighbors batty as well!

87 thoughts on “Noise pollution tit for tat uses the Baha Boys as a weapon”

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Ugh, cool hack, but I’m really against passive-aggressive tactics like this. Just go knock on their door? Maybe they’ll just turn it down and you don’t have to poison your own ears with Baha Boys. I’m just glad I don’t live in this building, lol.:)

This is what a normal person will do,unfortunately this “language” works only between normal people.After a year of some strange turkish music played by a powerfull but very bad sound system i decide to use Rammstein against ,usually after 1 minute they stop.

Cool hack, but I’m not sure it’ll be effective, for a couple reasons:
1) if he can hear the neighbors’ music through the wall, it’s pretty loud. Unless he cranks up *his* music *super* loud, the neighbors won’t be able to hear it.
2) a polite request to the neighbors might be more effective, or barring that
3) there should be some sound insulation between the units. It should be a double wall with no mechanical connection between the two sides, plus sound-deadening insulation (e.g. Roxul).

In reply to your third problem, what should be and what is are usually worlds apart. Yes, it should be insulated, etc., but I doubt his property manager is going to go to all that effort after the fact (meaning, once tenants move in).

In response to #1, assuming it is just a two unit building, or a situation where everyone in the building wants them gone, that is where you get a couple friends with pro audio subs/amps to come by and aim those at the wall. Just be sure to take anything valuable off of your own walls/shelves.

I personally did something similar but with cb radio. hooked it up and placed the antenna close to where their speakers are. then turn it on and broadcast through their speakers even when they are off. (you need a high powered amp) I pretended to be a ghost for a month, would play rick astley late at night through it. A few months went by and they ended up selling their stereo and got a better one only to find out it happened with the new one, they moved out later that week. hahahahahah justice is served.

I’ve found that moving to William S. Gibson style isolated enclaves of old rich guys helps this problem, however, it isn’t always an option.

It’s amazing how poorly shielded most stereo equipment is, especially that used by people who live within 20-25 meters of you and like to keep it turned up to 11.

I assure you that his preamp, tuner and power amp are all designed to pick up interference, and that somewhere between 1 khz and 1 Ghz exists the magic resonant frequency and power that will effectively dampen their enthusiasm for the music.

These days I see people blaring music in their vehicles and on cheap stereos as signs of their happiness, in the same way that an adolescent male gets a thrill from winding up his engine and treating us to the sound of poorly tuned exhaust pipes. If it makes you happy, great. I like weird turkish music, btw.

My vote: get a recording of a big dog or two barking at a mailman, or a squirrel. Enhance it a bit, and play it when loud noises occur for 3-5 minutes. Eventually, a negotiation will occur.

Be careful of things like this, over at a speaker building forum that shall remain anonymous a similar situation happened in an industrial strip mall kind of shop place. Guy built big speakers to play over annoying music and the neighbor cut a hole in the wall and then shot the man and then committed suicide. Neighbor had mental issues, you never know what might happen.

Watched the video and yeah you could hear the neighbor but it didn’t seem outrageously loud.

And he keeps talking about setting it up to play while he’s not there. Is that taking it too far? Possibly. If someone was blocking my drive way while I’m not there, even if it didn’t cause me a problem, it would bug me. But if a neighbor was playing loud music while I was out… Yeah I don’t see why that would bother me at all.

Infact I’d say let them do it. Everyone loves to pump out some loud tunes now and then. Better to let them get it out of their system while you’re not even there!

I’m sure most of us have had noisy neighbors before and have had the occasional bang on the wall or retaliation music. One of the risks is that your neighbor doesn’t even realize its an issue and thinks YOU’RE the jerk for randomly playing short loud bursts of music.

Another risk is that you just piss each other off and what could have been solved with a simple conversation or politely written note has now turned into a never ending sound war.

I’ve had a noisy neighbor before that I couldn’t work anything out with. Setting an alarm for 3am a few nights a week and blasting some bass at their wall solved it. Yes it inconvenience me as much as them, but people don’t like being woken and it sends a pretty clear message. Sometimes there’s really no other solution, but try the simpler and nicer ones first!

Something that’s nearly impossible to judge over the internet. When the music from next door is compared to the person on camera speaking, it’s loud enough require you to turn up your system to be able to fear it over the noise from next door.Not that this would be a route I’d take

We had this issue in an apartment. The people below us blared their music at all hours of the night. We went down to ask them to turn it down a bit on a Wednesday morning at about 3am and their response was, “IT’S A PARTY!!!”

We started playing Dance Dance Revolution at ALL hours. They were less than amused.

Some years back, I lived in an apartment that had one suite that like to play loud music in the wee hours, waking myself and many others. One morning at 9am, fed up after yet another episode, I put my big studio monitors on the balcony and played Wagner’s Valkyrie, Beethoven’s 5th and Bach’s Toccata at well over 100 db preceded, of course, by a THX intro. Those neighbours never, ever played loud music again.

hmm. his speakers look pretty big and beefy (1970’s style, the heyday of loud quality speakers) So he probably enjoys a bit of loud music himself. so maybe the neighbors already have some sort of auto sonic weapon setup going. In which case there will be an ongoing cybernetic sound war between the two systems. All good fun unless you happen to live near by.

I remember building a high freq generator in highschool that was very effective in making people mad at me as it caused pain in the jaw and in some cases vomiting. It was also very hard to pinpoint. Perhaps a good dose of vomiting every time they play loud music might condition them to keep it down… Or it would at least provide some satisfaction ..:)

re: delay and feedback – friend of my ex’s parents did this. big-ass amp, mic, delay and spring reberb, with speakers physically coupled to the wall. worked a treat, apparently – neighbours knew he was an ee, so came round to ask for advice. so he went round, all innocent, had a poke about, sure as eggs at a certain level all sorts of wacky feedback happened. his response – “move your speakers to the other side of the room, and play it less loud.”…

It’s possible that he’s already tried talking to the neighbors and the landlord/management, and those discussions have been fruitless; he doesn’t make any statements about prior attempts to solve it before resorting to fighting fire with fire. Certainly valid points, but he may have “been there, done that” already.

plan for stereo disarmament:
phase 1 “compromise”: leave a plate of cookies with a note politely requesting the neighbors only pump up the volume during certain times and to give you a heads up when they would be pumping out side those times, continue to leave plates of cookies to thank them for being cooperative. if this fails escalate to phase 2.

phase 2 “formal”: file a formal complain with any relevant managers, HOA’s, and police departments. if they will do nothing about it escalate to phase 3

phase 3 “get their attention”: counter with a loud sound system that possess the following qualities.
a. louder than theirs
b. sound can be directed at the other apartment with out filling your apartment with louder noise
c. computer controlled so it only plays when they are loud
d. (optional)can play the nyan cat song, rick roll, trololol, and classical
if ineffective escalate to phase 4

phase 4 “unconditional surrender”: leave a note detailing that you counter system will be running continuously for an unreasonable amount of time and you won’t be around to shut it off if their stereo isn’t dismantled and on the curb by the end of that time the bombardment will continue. if they attempt to shut it off them selves you will be pressing charges. open the bombardment with flight of the Valkyrie(it is recommended that you install security systems and cameras for this phase if you haven’t already)

Stick some headphones in your ears.
Play loud music into them.
Turn on a stereo and turn up the volume.
Step into another room with the headphones still in.
Do you hear your music in the other room? No? Exactly.

This guy is just making life even harder on himself. Lots more loud music, now with more than just bass AND it’s annoying music too. This isn’t a hack, it’s an epic Fail.

Like my steel guitar, the original is Tesla’s earthquake machine. In other words the feedback idea with a wall transducer made with a coneless woofer and a contact mic picking up the most offending notes. Threshold acting it will end up making their room act like when a turntable picks up big bass and sets a limit to how loud you can crank it.

Yes, you “should” talk politely to your neighbor first. And then if that fails, involve the landlord and/or police.

But let’s not be naive here. Too often these approaches are utterly useless. Sometimes it’s obvious that they’ll be useless from the start, and not even worth attempting.

You going to move every time this happens? Heck no. Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself and your rights.

Resorting to sonic/electronic warfare does just that. Yet it’s still more gentlemanly (and legal) than alternatives like vandalism, threats, assault, etc.

And more importantly, it may convince the neighbors that you’re crazy enough to possibly do any of those things, without actually having to do it. It is a demonstration you’re willing to take matters into your own hands. Especially if you never bothered with more than one friendly request, police, or landlords. A great motivator, and unfortunately what it often takes.

this is retarded, if he is not home he shouldn’t care if they play music, as thats the time he should want them too, then when he is home respect that he can hear it and be reasonable.
If I was his neighbor and he set that up when he went to work I would be investing in some crazy huge subwoofers and letting the dogs out on him at 4am

One cancellation techniques. Would be far out if that could be carried out the point where the offenders couldn’t hear their own system, if they didn’t respond to a request to keep the volume down. Particularly if they go spend mega bucks to replace broken equipment

I used to have a problem like this at my old apartment. I talked to the neighbors above me multiple times. The last time i talked to them, the kids were running back and forward in the halls and rooms of their apartment. The mother asked me what she should do about it and looked at me like i suggested murder when i suggested she let the kids play outside. I considered doing a setup like this, but to hit the ceiling with a rubber mallet for every stomp that is detected.

This guy is an individual who has an over-inflated sense of self worth, compounded by a low level of intellegence, behaving ridiculously in front of colleagues with no sense of how moronic he appears. and he who seeks revenge digs two graves.. i bet his neighbors will burn the house down if he keeps this up.

Why does everybody always blame the neighbours for making the noise?
The real problem is ofcourse the way houses / apartment blocks are builtt and the soundproffing of the walls is insufficient in even most newly built appartments.

Stop blaming your neigbours and start blaming the people who design and build these appartments.

In happy la-la land, you can call the designer/builder if you have this problem. They will immediately come out, apologize for their mistake, and install additional soundproofing.

Unfortunately Paul, we’re in the real world, where none of this will happen. Apartments typically have inadequate soundproofing, some not having enough to mute even a normal volume conversation. And some people, instead of recognizing and living with the limitations of their building, take the money saved by renting such apartments to buy large stereo systems. Producing such ridiculous volume and amounts of bass that ANY amount of soundproofing couldn’t stop it; even a concrete wall.

If anyone is to blame other than the noisemakers, it’s actually YOU; and the many others like you who think they’re living in happy la-la land. Because any time an effective noise abatement law is proposed, people like you endlessly march into court and defend the noisemakers, blaming anyone and anything else. Causing the law to either be officially retracted, or informally treated as unenforceable.

We have what would seem a clear-cut noise ordinance here. If the noise exceeds a certain level as measured by SPL meter through a wall, or at a specified distance, then it’s in violation.

Except no one is willing to enforce it, because they’re tired of dealing with endless whining from folks like you.

The police avoid enforcing it by not having SPL meters. The official story is that they don’t have enough money in the budget, not even for ONE of them. But from experience I know that if you know the right people and speak off the record, they’ll tell you the real reason. And that they used to have some SPL meters, which inexplicably disappeared six months after the ordinance was passed. An apartment association here even offered to donate a bunch of SPL meters to them, but they rejected the offer without explanation.

If you use your own SPL meter, the courts avoid enforcing the ordinance by saying your meter isn’t calibrated. Or could have been tampered with to return false readings. Or could be measuring something else, since the typically offending bass doesn’t reproduce well enough to be heard at anywhere near true volume on a video recorder or court television.

That is reality for you. I’ve dealt with plenty of it. I’ve been listening to wall-shaking bass for the last two hours at this point, coming through external walls and windows with additional soundproofing I’ve installed. I’m not happy about it, but my current neighbors are enjoying their 4th of July celebration music with no interference from me; because they rarely do it, are friendly, and have always turned it down if I ask. Unfortunately, that seems to be the exception, not the majority; and I have not been so lucky with past neighbors. So I have much respect for anyone who is willing to attempt to solve a noise problem through any creative means necessary, and none for those that defend those that make excessive noise.

Step 1. Estimate position of enemy’s stereo.
Step 2. Cut small hole in drywall and insert camera to determine location of enemy’s electrical outlet.
Step 3. Locate and splice into enemy’s electrical wiring and add a switch to add a load large enough that it will pop an electrical breaker or just wire up a light switch to short the line.
Step 4. Apply load when music gets too loud.

the sad part is, it doesn’t even work, i.e. “they” don’t seem to care. the poor soul got it all wrong.

if something like that was my last resort, i’d at least play stuff to suit my taste, use hearing protection, and gently push my gear not too close to its safety limits. audiophilia nervosa the hard way. if distortion is kept within reason and protective earplugs are of good quality, this can still sound nice.

then again, uninvolved third parties might not be amused, so i would really have to be desperate on that last resort part…

Great idea.
I’ve wanted to find/make some sort of gizmo that will transmit RF into a nearby stereo system, just like my CB used to do. That way I don’t need to make MY house loud just to annoy the noisy neighbors, I can make THEIR audio system produce awesomely bad noises, and they’ll have no idea where it’s coming from.
My only problem is, I’m not an electronics type. I can handle setting up and using the typical CB, and I even have a ham radio license, but to create the thing I need, I need some advice from a person(s) with more know-how than I have.
Any readers got any ideas to share? No flames, please, I apologize for my ignoramousity and stuff, it is what it is. I’m just asking an honest question, honestly seeking a lilbit of assistance making another solution for the same problem the poster’s got.
How ’bout it, y’all?
-Joe